Snow brakes are used to prevent accumulations of snow from sliding off inclined roofs. With the use of a snow brake, accumulated snow is allowed to melt, or sublime directly to vapor, while being retained in place on the inclined roof.
Accumulations of snow that slide off roofs can cause injury to people or damage to property therebelow due to the weight of the snow, the speed at which the snow falls, and the unpredictability of when and how much snow will slide off the roof. Snow brake systems are of particular use with planar roofs, where minimal frictional resistance and planar surfaces contribute to the sliding of the snow.
Planar metal roofs are commonly used in industrial applications, such as factories or shops. Due to the type of work commonly associated with factories or shops, people, vehicles, and other equipment is often moving in and out of such buildings. Further, these types of buildings commonly also have irregular heating patterns. For example, a factory may have a heated office, an unheated loading area, and industrial machinery that puts off large amounts of heat. All of these different areas may be contained under a single roof. These irregular heating patterns can lead to irregular melting patterns of snow on the roof. Irregular melting patterns can lead to unpredictable time and places that snow slides off of the roof. Even further, there may be many people unfamiliar with the configuration and possible dangers of the building, such as independent trucking operators. The combination of the unpredictable melting patterns and the people unfamiliar with the melting patterns leads to risks of possible injury to people and equipment.
Similarly, many homes, residences, cabins, ski condos, recreational properties, and resorts in snowy locales also have planar metal roofs, and are subject to similar issues. For example, many homes have wood burning stoves or similar heating apparatus, which lead to irregular heating patterns. Further, many of these types of buildings have attached covered areas that are not walled in, to park equipment or store wood for example. These covered areas may be attached to the same roof system as the home. Again, this leads to an irregular heating pattern between the home and the covered area. In addition, the nature of these types of buildings, in that they may not be occupied regularly, leads to similar risks. Further, children, animals, or even adults who are not aware of the possibility of sliding snow may be in danger of injury. Again, the combination of the unpredictable melting patterns and the people unfamiliar with the melting patterns leads to risks of possible injury to people and equipment.
In locations that receive significant amounts of snow, there is also significant amounts of freezing. Therefore, ice dams or other accumulations of snow and ice may block gutters in these locations and lead to ice ridges on and along portions of the roof. Buildings with planar metal roofs, such as factories, shops, cabins, condos, and ski lodges also typically have very high roofs. Therefore, accessing these gutters to service the gutters and/or to remove ice dams is difficult and potentially dangerous, and the sliding of accumulations of snow may damage the gutters and even tear the gutters from the roof eaves causing substantial damage.
Metal roofs are generally formed of plural large planar or minimally contoured metal panels and often have spaced apart parallel standing seams at adjacent edges of the separate panels. Standing seams are created using the opposing edges of adjacent planar roof panels. A first edge portion of each planar roof panel is bent generally vertically upwardly to form an upwardly extending lip (additional configurations are also available). The opposing second edge of the same planar roof panel is similarly bent upwardly, to form a second lip, and this second lip at the second edge is thereafter folded over or bent downwardly into a narrow inverted “U” shaped channel. The inverted narrow “U” shaped channel fits over and encloses/engages with the first upstanding lip of an adjacent planar roof panel. In this way, each planar roof panel has one half of a cooperating roof seam at each opposing edge portion.
As will be understood from the description herein, the first and second edge portions of adjacent planar roof panels overlap so that the inverted narrow “U” shaped channel of the second edge portion overlaps the first edge portion of an immediately adjacent roof panel. Engagement of the first upwardly extending lip into the second narrow inverted “U” channel provides an edge interconnection of the adjacent planar roof panels, and this interconnection may be sealed by known means so as to be water-tight. Further, the cooperating and interconnecting edge portions may be formed during the manufacturing of the roof panels, which eases the installation and interconnection of the planar roof panels. Due to this construction, replacing roof sections when they are damaged or have reached the end of their useful life is simplified. However, like any roof, maintaining the integrity of the roof is critical. Leaks created by any holes in a roof can cause a myriad of problems, from mold to ruined equipment. This is a particular concern with metal roofs, since there are typically not several layers of roofing or large overlapping portions of roofing, as there are with asphalt shingle roofs.
The standing seams, besides making installation and maintenance more convenient, also present an opportunity to install additional apparatus on the roof.